Chapter IV — 53 — Nepenthes 



Seedlings. — The primary leaves of the seedling (first described by 

 BiscHOFF in 1834), the cotyledons, are elongate oval and present no 

 noteworthy features. The following leaves, which will for convenience 

 be called primary, consist of a short spreading and clasping base, 

 narrowing briefly to expand at once into a pitcher (Korthals) with the 

 edges of the leaf base extending up its ventral (adaxial) face as two 

 wings which either meet transversely somewhat beneath the rim of the 

 pitcher mouth (Hooker, 1859, Dickson, Macfarlane), or end 

 abruptly without meeting (Goebel). Stern, restudying Goebel's 

 material, verified this but pointed out that he found a row of gland- 

 like tentacles (7 — 5) and these might indicate a transverse connection. 

 Troll strongly favored the view that there occurs actually or funda- 

 mentally a union of the wings below the rim to express '"total stipula- 

 tion." The edge of the mouth of the pitcher is armed with a transverse 

 rim usually well developed, and occupies about one-half to two-thirds 

 of the peripher>^ the rest being taken up by the base of a lid, that is, 

 in the primary leaves the lid base is very broad (7 — 7, 9) while in 

 the adult leaf type it is narrow, with the consequence that the veins 

 are spread apart in the former and crowded together in the latter. 

 The venation of the lid appears quite evidently to be an extension of 

 the plan of that of the pitcher, and not secondary as is that of the rim, 

 if we may lean on juvenile leaf forms arising on small forced shoots. 

 The lid bears a number of tentacle-hke emergencies at its edges and 

 upper surface, and behind it extends an appendage which is properly 

 regarded as the organic apex of the leaf, the "spur." With the advance 

 of age, the region betw^een the leaf base and the pitcher elongates, so 

 that a blade now intervenes, with its margins continuous with the wings 

 of the pitcher. The intercalation of a tendril at this region is indicated 

 in the narrowing of the blade (7 — 7, 11), and in the more mature 

 condition a tendril is realized. The leaf then consists of an expanded 

 base, a blade, generally of some length, a tendril which becomes 

 functional as such, supporting at its end the pitcher which is always 

 winged, though less obviously, it may be, than in the seedling {4 — 7, 

 8). In some species the pitchers on the higher parts of the plant have 

 the wings reduced to mere ridges. 



The early development of the pitcher leaf has been described by 

 J. D. Hooker (1859), Bower, Stern, who, as to the facts, agree. 

 In the very early condition, there is to be observed a depression just 

 below the apex of the yet merely low conical structure (7 — i). The 

 lid develops as a transverse ridge at the distal limb of the depression 

 and is independent of the true apex (7 — 2). The lid is therefore not 

 the tip of the leaf, but an outgrowth on the ventral face of the leaf 

 near its apex (Hooker). It grows downward over the opening, which 

 in the meantime becomes deeper to form the acidium. It has the 

 appearance of a two lobed affair (7 — 4), and that it is really such 

 has been thought by Bower and by Macfarlane who cite in support 

 of their view the fact that the lid in the mature leaf is often emargi- 

 nate. The conical apex continues its development into an expanded 

 leaf tip which may at length bear one to several expanded lobes 

 {N. ampullaria), "pinnae" as they have been called, and Macfarlane 

 regards them as supporting evidence of his theory that the whole leaf 



